City violence must stop

By The Daily Progress

Published: July 31, 2008

Change has to start somewhere.

Charlottesville must halt its slide into violence. There have been three homicides so far this year — and all victims have been young people; one child was only 11.

Perhaps in Charlottesville change will begin with a grass-roots effort to connect with the city’s “at-risk” young people and improve quality of life for them and for everyone in their neighborhoods.

City residents faced the challenge at a meeting earlier this week and set up several subcommittees to tackle individual aspects of that challenge. One group will address gun violence; another will explore holding intergenerational events at which people can connect, and another will look at how to get young people involved in their communities.

“We just need to stop” the violence, said Angela Carr, an intern for the city and the Charlottesville Quality Community Council. “Everybody is supposed to love each other.

“All this violence is happening because we’re bored,” she added.

Now, boredom is not a fatal disease — in this case, fatal to the victims. Boredom is — or should be — nothing more than a mild discomfort that can be managed.

But have we taught our young people to deal with boredom? Do they know where to go, what to do to occupy themselves, short of getting into trouble?

Or are they beyond the point of caring? Have their lives become so intensified — through the imagery of violent movies, music and video games — that nothing less than the adrenalin of violence will erase their boredom?

Do they know how to “love,” as Ms. Carr hopes? Can they be taught?

Change has to start somewhere. Perhaps it starts here with the heartfelt efforts of volunteers to reconnect with community youth and to connect those young people with their community.

But we would be ill-advised to underestimate the magnitude of the challenge. Youth violence is a problem that has been growing for decades. It will not be reversed in days or months.

The problem requires a long-term, concerted, persistent effort. And the push for change must be embraced by a significant portion of the community — enough people with enough passion to truly make a difference.

To change a violent culture, grass-roots activists need a rare blend of realism and idealism. Idealism fuels passion and action; realism acknowledges the difficulty of the task and settles down for the long haul.

Change always has a starting point, sometimes just a small kernel of an idea. But change cannot remain small, not in this case, not if it is to be effective.

That means none of us is exempt from this challenge — not a single one of us. We all have a personal stake in diminishing the violence.